Social mobility, partner choice, marriage and family formation. A life course approach to migration and integration in three Northwestern European post cities: Antwerp, Rotterdam and Stockholm, 1850-1914.

In this PhD thesis, the social inclusion and exclusion of internal and international migrants are investigated in three Northwestern European port cities in the period 1850-1930 using quantitative research methods. The data are retrieved from three large databases: The Antwerp COR*-database, the Historical Sample of the Netherlands and the Stockholm Historical Database. All three databases contain longitudinal data on the micro-level and are derived from population registers.  On the basis of these data, the life courses of different groups of migrants and natives are reconstructed and compared. By comparing three cities it is possible to gain insight into the influence of the local opportunity structure on processes of inclusion and exclusion.  

Five social demographic indicators are selected which are linked to core transitions in the life course: partner choice, marriage, the birth of the first child, social mobility and mortality. These indicators provide insight into the degree to which migrants gain access to other groups, the marriage and labour market, as well as reproduction. The last indicator - mortality - is used to evaluate whether migrants were confronted with health problems due to their move to the city. In order to gain a clearer picture of who is included and who is excluded, and the underlying processes involved, the demographic features, the social, economic, cultural and sexual capital of the migrant groups are incorporated into the analyses.

The results show that the social inclusion of newcomers in the period 1850-1930 was a difficult process, due to cultural differences and migrants’ lack of human capital. Migrants had lower marriage opportunities, married at later ages, and later and less often completed the transitions to parenthood.

If migrants did marry, their marriage partners were usually not natives. Newcomers connected relatively easily to other migrant groups. This was especially the case for women in Rotterdam and Stockholm. These gender differences were the result of a shortage of men, leading women to search for their partner more often outside of their own group.

In general, small migrant groups had more difficulties in gaining access to the marriage market, but they connected more easily to other groups. French-speaking internal migrants in Antwerp were an exception.  They were less likely to marry, and if they married they were more likely to marry within versus outside of their own group. This points towards a combination of marginalization and separation.  

Internal migrants had lower positions in the labour market and were not always able to close the gap with the natives in the course of their careers. Low-educated migrants from the countryside had a hard time, especially in the industrial capital of Sweden. Thanks to their human capital, international migrants in all three cities were very successful in the labour market. The fact that the same group had difficulties in gaining access to the marriage market shows that economic success did not necessarily lead to the bridging of cultural differences.

Migrants were favoured compared to natives in terms of mortality. The so-called healthy migrant effect was the result of positive selection effects: Healthier people are more likely to migrate. It was also proven that the lower mortality risks among migrants were not due to measurement errors. The healthy migrant effect was not caused by selective return migration of the weak, sick, elderly or migrants who had difficulties adapting to the receiving urban society (salmon bias hypothesis). Migrants who moved to another destination had the lowest mortality risks. This is an indication that leaving was not necessarily a consequence of adaptation problems. It could have also been also a reaction to better opportunities elsewhere. The fact that leavers had similar marriage opportunities points in the same direction.

Although migrants had on average lower mortality risks than natives, four sub-groups were identified who experienced excess mortality due to social exclusion. Moreover, the health advantage disappeared later in the life course among migrants who settled on a more permanent basis in the cities under study. In the end, migrants thus paid a health price for their move to the city.

The social inclusion of migrants went smoother in Antwerp compared to Rotterdam and Stockholm. This is explained by the specific port development and the dominant position of the port in the local economy. In Antwerp there were not only many opportunities for the low educated, but also for highly educated migrants. Maritime trade and the large presence of international migrants created an open atmosphere towards newcomers.